Chocolate Orange Panettone

Remember a little while ago, I made some candied peel? Well I promised you that I would include it in some recipes to give you an idea of how to use up your homemade candied peel.

The candied peel lasts for up to a month and after using some of it in my homemade mincemeat, I still had a bit left to play with. It’s great to decorate cakes with, would be delicious in ice-cream or perhaps you could add a sliver to your Christmas cocktails.

I however wanted to use mine in a chocolate orange panettone, I have wanted to make a panettone for ages, but my kitchen is quite small and with two bundt tins already in my ownership I couldn’t really justify the space that a panettone tin would take up as well – don’t even get me started on a pandoro!

Well after a hunt around the internet I managed to find some panettone cases, these are strong enough to bake the panettone in and they’re great for transporting it. Should you want to make more than one and give it to friends and family. The other great thing about using these cases, is that you can hang your panettone the traditional way with skewers or hooks through the base so that the panettone will not collapse as it cools.

I had no idea that panettones had to be hung when they cool to stop them sinking, I can’t remember how I even found out about it, but a quick search of the internet proved it was true. I just used two wooden kebab skewers which I stabbed through the side of the panettone as soon as it came out of the oven and hung it upside down in the perfect gap between two bits of worktop I have. You could hang it between two chairs, or put some jars on your worktop and hang it that way – just make sure you have an idea of how you are going to hang it before baking it as it starts to sink as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Chocolate and orange is a classic combination and it’s not a flavour of panettone I think I’ve seen before, so it seemed the obvious choice. I don’t like my panettone too sweet, so I used 70% Dark Chocolate Chips from Callebaut.

Panettone is delicious, but it dries out really quickly, so as soon as it is cool be sure to wrap it in cling-film or store it in an airtight container. If you find that the panettone dries out, it tastes really good toasted lightly and then spread with slightly salted butter, or used in something like a bread and butter pudding or French toast.

To have a go at making your own panettone, try the recipe below, it’s so much easier than I thought it would be and there are so many flavour combinations. This would be delicious with a sweet sherry or a glass of port on Christmas Eve sat by the fire.

This recipe was adapted from BBC Good Food, if you are using a panettone tin and not 18cm x 12cm panettone cases you can use the quantities from their website.

Ingredients

2 ½ Tbsp Warm Milk

10g Fast Action Dried Yeast

65g Caster Sugar

165g Unsalted Butter, softened

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Medium Eggs

1 Orange, zested

330g Strong White Bread Flour

Pinch of Salt

85g 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate Chips

85g Candied Peel, finely chopped

Instructions

Take the milk, yeast and a teaspoon of the sugar and combine it together in a bowl, leave it to bubble away.

Place the sugar, vanilla and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the beater attached and cream the two together until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beat them into the mixture, adding the next one when fully mixed in.

Add the grated orange zest, yeast mixture and the flour and change the beater to a dough hook. Mix on Medium for 10 minutes, until the dough is coming away from the sides of the bowl.

Cover the bowl with cling-film and place somewhere warm for two hours to prove, until the dough has doubled in size.

After two hours, add the chocolate and candied peel and mix the dough again with the dough hook for 5 minutes.

Place the dough inside the panettone case and cover lightly with clingfilm and leave to rise for an hour or until it has reached the top of the case.

Pre-heat the oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F and bake the panettone for 45 minutes. As soon as the panettone is cooked, pierce the case with two wooden kebab skewers straight through the sides near the bottom and hang the panettone upside down to cool, this will stop it sinking.

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Thanks so much for supporting my blog over the whole of 2017, I’d like to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year I hope you have a wonderful time with your friends and family.

Wow! I assumed when I opened the post that this was a shop-bought one as it looks utterly perfect! So impressed it’s your first panettone bake! Love the case, great that you can bake and transport in it, and very interesting to read about the hanging to stop it from sinking as it cools, had no idea!

Well the first one ended up in the bin as it exploded over the top of the case and I didn’t have much of it left, so there was a bit of trial and error. Glad I’ve taught you something new about panettone!

Your panettone looks so professional Angela. I’ve made it before and it was very nice, but it didn’t look nearly as good as yours. Homemade candied peel is a bit like mincemeat I find. Once you make your own, there’s no going back. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you all the best for 2018.

Silvia

Hi Silvia, the panettone has quite a short lifespan. I would say if you make it a day before and then store it in an airtight container or some clingfilm it will stay soft for a couple of days, but it’s at its best eaten within 24 hours.

I am SO impressed that you’ve developed a recipe for your own panettone!!! I never would have thought I could achieve anything quite like this. The crumb structure and those air bubbles…serious food porn. I will be pinning this for next year!I hope I have as much success as you have. Merry Christmas!